Unpacking the results at the International Spirits Challenge Awards

As many of you know, we really hate to be delusional about how our products measure up to the best in class internationally. Thus we choose wisely when investing in competition entries. In our opinion, the International Spirits Challenge for Rum, Cane Spirits & Cachaca is the best game in town given that the chair of the judging is Carsten E. Vlierboom, Managing Director f E&A Scheer BV in the Netherlands - the largest specialty blender of bulk rum in the world.

The deadline for entries was back in March and we waited with great anticipation for the release of winners in August. Convinced that we had a gold medal entry with both our entries we were totally deflated when we were advised of our medal wins prior to publication. Without knowledge of the other winners, we stomped about for two weeks wondering where we failed.

Then we looked at the results.

There were a total of 1817 entries in the rum competition over all and just 128 medals awarded.

For our Kings's Cut entry in the Limited Bottling Category we were bested by the venerable blenders - House of Rum and Dropworks Rum Distillery, both of which have a great deal more resources at their disposal. Our Silver win alongside the others in this category made us feel significantly better.

The flavoured rum category was quite interesting. Just one gold which was awarded to Bacardi, and Planteray earning bronze for their two entries. Again, it left us feeling pretty darn good about our Silver.

The upshot is that here we are, probably the smallest, most under capitalized distillery in the competition, and we can hold our heads up along with the big players. Competitions are expensive for us small guys. Yes, it's subjective, but when those who have an encyclopaedia of taste judge you to be worthy - it feels pretty darn great !